


Beautiful

by brightpinkballerina



Series: Family Matters [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Comfort, Cute Kids, F/M, Family Fluff, Fatherhood, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, Married Couple, Married Life, Motherhood, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:36:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23825440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightpinkballerina/pseuds/brightpinkballerina
Summary: When Misty was a little girl, no one had ever called her beautiful. Her three older sisters, on the other hand, were only ever called beautiful. Misty always struggled to deal with her own resulting self-consciousness...until Ash came along. But what happens down the line, when they have their own daughter and Misty's fears resurface?
Relationships: Kasumi | Misty/Satoshi | Ash Ketchum
Series: Family Matters [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1785139
Kudos: 29





	Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! If you're familiar with my work on FF.net, this is actually a chapter from my Family Matters compilation series. I really loved the way it came out, however, and feel that it also works very well as a standalone story. So I wanted to share it here as well. Enjoy!

When Misty was a little girl, no one had ever called her beautiful.

The best she was ever able to get was “cute.” 

_“Oh, that Misty! She’s so cute!”_

_“Look at that cute little girl.”_

_“Is that the gym leader’s youngest granddaughter? How cute!”_

“Cute” was not normally a bad thing. But, when you had three older sisters who were showered with compliments that went above and beyond, “cute” was no longer so satisfying.

Daisy, Violet, and Lily were never referred to as “cute.” Instead, they were _adorable_ , and _stunning_ , and _beautiful_.

Beautiful. Misty had learned to hate that word before she was even five years old.

People never thought before they spoke. Misty just assumed that they didn’t bother to think that a young kid truly understood the power behind certain words. But hearing her sisters be complimented in a certain way over and over again, when she didn’t receive the same kind of treatment, was practically like being beat over the head with a stick.

_“Daisy, Violet, and Lily are all so adorable!”_

_“Have you ever seen such stunning little girls before? I swear, they could all be child models!”_

_“What beautiful sisters the three of them are!”_

So…yeah. “Cute” certainly paled in comparison. 

And those stupid comparisons led to self-doubt deep within Misty…self-doubt that she would never tell anyone else about. Instead, Misty just allowed it to eat her alive for years and years, always defiantly refuting that she was some kind of runt and unworthy of being mentioned in the same breath as her sisters, but internally believing that all of those things were actually true.

It wasn’t until Misty became older and boys began to show interest in her that she started to wonder if maybe she wasn’t such a misfit. Honestly, when most boys started to compliment her looks, Misty still doubted that they were being serious. After all, what made them so different than everyone else?

The _only_ person who had actually made the gears in Misty’s brain start to turn more seriously was Ash. 

And that had taken a _long_ time.

Okay…a long, _long_ time.

Growing up, Ash was dense. He was immune to anything and everything related to romance or love. When he first met Misty, he just thought of her as a pain in the neck. Someone who was following him around because he owed her something. He never dared to compliment her. In fact, he treated her like she was another boy. He called her names, he teased her. Not that it affected Misty all that deeply; she just did it right back without much of a second thought. She was used to not being complimented, after all, and back them, Ash’s approval was the last thing she was looking for. Besides, at least he was upfront about his personal insults.

But eventually, Ash stopped teasing her so much. He stopped calling her names. He still didn’t think of her as anything more than a friend, but he became much kinder to her. Misty, well…she still teased him quite a bit. In her defense, he just made it too easy. But it became much more like friendly banter than the biting insults it had been in the beginning. Ash usually just laughed it off, and suddenly, Misty found herself craving that laughter. She loved hearing it. It made her feel like she was doing something right.

And so, she worked for his amusement. She put in the effort to see him or visit him whenever she could. It wasn’t easy; Ash was a fast-moving target. He traveled from place to place like he’d spontaneously combust if he stayed still for too long. But Misty tried her best. And eventually, enough years had passed, without Misty really being able to pinpoint where it had all began, that Ash started looking at her differently.

Suddenly, he thought of her as a little more than just a friend.

It was a very conservative change at first, so slight that Misty had barely noticed it. Something seemed different, but she wasn’t entirely sure of what. It was only when Ash became more awkward and more nervous around her, that Misty realized he was feeling something, and that it was clearly foreign to him. When Ash had finally blurted in a fit of frustrated nerves that he thought Misty was beautiful, it had practically changed her world.

Ash…the _only_ person whose approval she was now interested in, thought she was beautiful?

Talk about feeling like you might spontaneously combust.

With Ash firmly in her corner, Misty finally felt all of her self-consciousness begin to dissipate. After all, if he thought she was beautiful, then that was all that really mattered to her. 

What Misty hadn’t accounted for, however, was how having a daughter of her own would reignite those very same insecurities that had taken her so long to get rid of.

The first time a stranger had called Michelle beautiful was in the hospital…when she was probably less than an hour old.

It was by a nurse, who had been tending to the baby before Ash and Misty had paid their first visit. When the woman saw the new parents, her eyes had positively lit up, the reason for which was not a mystery to either visitor.

“Is this your daughter?” The nurse had asked, nodding towards Michelle.

Misty had found herself unable to speak (a rarity for her) so Ash took it upon himself to reply with a simple but perfectly happy, “Yeah!”

The nurse cooed and glanced down at Michelle again. “Well, congratulations! She’s absolutely beautiful!”

That comment filled Misty with pride, but just as quickly, she paused. Her little girl…was she going to have to deal with the same kind of nonsense Misty had to deal with when she was a kid? Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad because Michelle had a twin brother and no older sisters, but…was it going to be even worse because of who her parents were?

That scared Misty. She knew now that beauty was the least important thing for a girl to be concerned about, especially when it came to the opinions of strangers, but it was hard to remember that when it was continually brought up to you. She had learned that the hard way, and she didn’t want Michelle to have to learn it that way too. Misty feared Michelle feeling any less about herself because of what people had to say.

But it was too much to think about that day. Misty knew she was getting ahead of herself; after all, Michelle wasn’t even a day old yet. It was just something she’d have to keep in mind for the future.

And, as Michelle grew up, Misty quickly realized that her daughter was going to experience a very different childhood from her own.

Just about everywhere Misty went with the little girl, people would recognize them and fawn over Michelle like there was no tomorrow. They would get just one look at the kid, and their eyes would positively light up.

“Look at how beautiful she is!”

“My goodness, is that Michelle? She’s stunning!”

“What an adorable little girl!”

Michelle would always smile meekly but say nothing else. Even when Misty prodded her, the most she could get out of the girl was a remarkably quiet, “-ank you.”

And what Misty feared others would perceive as rudeness, they instead took as Michelle being…the perfect little girl.

“Oh, she’s so polite and soft spoken!”

“Those manners! How precious!”

“I wish my daughter was as ladylike as yours!”

One day, it had gotten to Misty enough that she’d gone back to Ash and went on a rant about the whole thing, thoroughly bewildering her husband.

“Those sound like compliments to me,” Ash commented once Misty had finally finished her tirade.

“They’re backhanded,” Misty grumbled, slumping against her dresser. “That’s just a semi-polite way of saying all girls should behave a certain way; always acting polite, being neat and tidy, and staying quiet until spoken to.”

“Well, Michelle’s not _always_ like that,” Ash reasoned with his wife.

“Yeah, only with people she’s not comfortable with,” Misty scoffed. “Do you know how close I was to telling the last woman who complimented her behavior: ‘thanks, it’s because of unresolved trauma’?”

Ash groaned and rubbed the side of his face. “Good thing you didn’t.”

“I’ve got to have _some_ restraint, especially considering who I’m married to,” Misty sighed, carefully eyeing Ash. “That’s one thing I’ve gotten better at over time. No one would have ever ‘complimented’ me as a kid the way they do to our daughter.”

“Because you weren’t the ‘perfect’ little girl?” Ash guessed.

“Absolutely not,” Misty confirmed, shaking her head. “I was loud, I played in the dirt, I was always speaking out of turn…sometimes I think that’s the real reason no one ever told me I was as beautiful as my sisters. Because they were the ‘perfect’ little girls, too.”

Ash smiled sympathetically at her. “Well, you know all those people were wrong. You’re one of the most beautiful girls in the world.”

Misty blushed furiously at Ash’s compliment and sheepishly looked away. She should’ve been used to compliments from him by now, but they still managed to get her completely flustered.

“But so is Michelle.”

Glancing back up, Misty asked, “what do you- “

“Michelle is beautiful, like you,” Ash interrupted, obviously not wanting to stop while his thoughts were racing. “But she’s also sweet, and kind, and smart. Like you. Those things are even more important than being beautiful, I think. You two are just really lucky, because you’ve got all of them!”

A huge smile broke out on Misty’s face, and she quickly threw her arms around Ash, enveloping him in a gigantic hug.

“Heh, guess I said something right,” Ash chuckled.

Misty pulled away and rolled her eyes. “Yes, you did.” Remaining silent for a moment, she continued, “I always try to remind myself that there’s more to life than appearances, _especially_ when it comes to Michelle. I don’t want her to grow up with the same kind of self-consciousness I did. But now I’m worried about all of these other backhanded compliments she’s getting, and how they might affect her…it’s like a spiral I can’t escape from. I’m just creating new problems.”

“Except Michelle’s not thinking about it the way you are,” Ash reminded her. “Honestly, Michelle is so scared of strangers she probably doesn’t even _listen_ to what they’re saying. But she _does_ listen to us.”

Misty’s eyes flickered. “What we say to her is more important than what any stranger has to say.”

Ash winked. “You’ve got it!”

Somehow, Misty’s smile managed to widen. “Michelle is so different than I was…I remembered every single thing anyone ever said to me, whether I knew them or not. They all affected me the same way. But Michelle could care less what those people have to say! She totally blocks them out! We can tell her how beautiful she is, how kind and sweet and smart she is, and she’ll listen to us. She’ll know those things are true.”

Ash smirked. “Never thought her fear of strangers would pay off, did you?”

“Can’t say I did,” Misty laughed awkwardly. 

“Mommy! Daddy!”

They looked towards the door and saw Michelle come running into their room, an impressive smile on her young face.

“What’s up, little princess?” Ash asked sweetly.

Michelle giggled and whipped out a picture book from behind her back. “I wead dis _whole_ book to Aiden!”

“You did?” Ash gasped, kneeling down and holding his arms out so Michelle could run into them. “Wow, you’re so smart, Shelly!”

“And you’re such a sweet sister, too!” Misty added warmly, bending down so she too could be at eye level with their daughter.

“-ank you!” Michelle chirped, far louder and more confidently than she ever had to any stranger.

Smiling, Misty continued, “hey, I have an idea! Why don’t you go round up your brother and we can read another story as a family?”

Michelle’s eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Ya!”

“Sounds good, huh?” Misty giggled. “Alright, go get him!”

The girl was about to run back out of the room, but her father pulled her back. “Hold on, baby girl!”

Michelle giggled and looked up at him. “What, Daddy?”

Ash smiled and gently tapped his daughter’s nose, earning more giggles from the child. “Do you know just how beautiful you are?”

Michelle kept on giggling as she nodded her head. “Uh huh! You and Mommy tell me!”

“We do!” Ash chuckled, gently turning Michelle around so she was facing him. “Because you’re such a beautiful little girl! But you’re lots of other things too, you know that?”

Smiling, Michelle nodded her head. “You and Mommy tell me I’m smart and nice and a bunch of other stuff!”

Ash grinned and gave his daughter a hug. “We do! You always remember that, kay?”

Once again, Michelle nodded her head before declaring, “I’ma get Aiden!”

And with that, she ran right out of the room.

Standing back up, Ash kept the grin on his face as he gazed at a teary, smiling Misty. “Those strangers aren’t totally off base. She really is the perfect little girl!”


End file.
